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1.03.2012

Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a fabulous New Year's Eve and that 2012 has been treating you well so far. We took a relaxing trip up to the mountains with good friends and rung in the new year with champagne and a big smooch.

This is the time of year that encourages you to reflect on the past twelve months, dream about what will come in the next twelve, and think about what you would like to change from one to the other. While I've never been one to write a list of New Year's resolutions and tape it to my mirror, I do have some things I would like to remind myself of. I came across the idea of setting a reminder on your phone or computer to look at your resolutions once a month and I think I'll practice that idea by revisiting this post every so often.

Here's what I would like to put my efforts towards in 2012:

1. Fully enjoy the bliss that is just Ryan and I: go on random dates, take weekend vacations, talk, get to know each other better every day, sleep in together on the weekends, soak up everything that is the two of us.

2. Eat healthier and cook more: we are usually pretty good about this, but our heavy workloads and personal schedules have left us (me, mostly) to choose convenience over good choices. Obviously cooking at 3. Move: this is in the works, but is still a major goal that will take things continuing to go smoothly and a ton of work over the next couple of weeks.

4. Work out: I quit the gym about six months ago and don't regret it because I never went. At our new house, however, there is a little gym within walking distance and I do miss working out frequently. We'll see if the eliminated car ride helps.5. Continue and build this blog: as I've mentioned before, I really enjoy writing these little blog posts and hope you enjoy doing the reading. I'd like to keep the lifestyle blog theme going and keep a balance between our lives and our interests.

6. Show my husband respect in a more tangible way: I can honestly say that I admire Ryan more than anyone I've ever met. He is always the same person (not something a lot of people can claim), he puts me before himself and he is the perfect counterpart to my emotional, impatient, demanding self. However, because of my faults I just listed, I don't always show how much I appreciate him and how much I truly respect the man and the husband he is. I definitely want to work on showing him this in very concrete ways.7. Go green: we do our best to recycle right now despite the fact that our condo complex doesn't have a recycling system (really?!) by putting our recyclables in bags and taking them up to my parent's house periodically to dump in their recycling bin. When we move though, I would really like to practice a "green theme."

8. Dive into our Small Group: God has blessed us with a pretty incredible group of young married couples and I want to embrace everything He has designed for all of us.

9. Save for the big stuff: now that we've taken the biggest financial step of our lives, we need to start thinking about the other big stuff. From cars to college funds to couches, we need to be proactive about our budget.

10. Memorize Scripture: this past year was amazing in some ways and heart-breaking in others and just the knowledge that God is in control is completely comforting. Having verses going through your mind can only be more powerful.

So there they are, in writing. Hopefully when I look back at the beginning of February, we'll have completely crossed off number three and the others will have had some attention too. How about you, did you make any New Year's resolutions? I'd love to hear them!